v notch shear Testing

Many engineering materials are frequently tested using standard uniaxial tension/compression methods. Material models are frequently derived from this uniaxial test data; however, real engineering structures seldom experience simple uniaxial states of stress. It is therefore important to perform tests beyond the standard uniaxial tension/compression tests to capture fully a material’s response. Shear loading is one such state of stress which can be tested.

The v-notch shear test, shown in the image below, is designed to characterize a material’s response under shear loading and is based on ASTM D5379. A nominally rectangular specimen with opposing ‘v’ shaped notches is placed in the test fixture. One side of the specimen is constrained while the other side is pressed down. Deformation is concentrated along a thin line connecting the opposing v notches, thereby producing a shear stress and deformation state. Applied load and displacement are measured until specimen failure. Digital Image Correlation can also be used to obtain the surface strains of the specimen. The results from this test are typically used to characterize the shear stress-shear strain response of a material and to validate a material model developed solely with data from other testing models.

Iosipescu test fixture

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